Today I'm making one of the most important decisions in the history of Based Knights.
Based Knights and Based Knights • Short Films are moving to Ethereum mainnet.
From token #17 up to #333, every Based Knight will be minted on ETH mainnet, in a new contract. The 16 Knights already born on Base stay exactly where they are. And from today on, I'm not minting on Base anymore.
The same goes for Based Knights • Short Films. From #17 to #333, every short film will be minted on ETH mainnet too, in its own new contract, while short films #1–#16 stay on Base.
Let me tell you why, and how it all fits together.
Why I'm doing this
Base was created for the based people in crypto. That's how it started, and that's what drew me in.
But in my opinion, Base isn't based anymore. I don't think that chain ever really helped real artists and builders. To me, it mostly became about clout and engagement farming.
Based Knights deserve better than that. So they're going where I believe the real based chain is: Ethereum mainnet. The OG one. The chain where all my other collections already live.
Above all, I'm doing this for the future of Based Knights. I want that future to be the best it can be, and building it well means taking the necessary steps now. We're at a great moment, and we're not too far into the mints. This is the time to move to ETH mainnet and keep going there, as we always have.
What happens to the first 16
The 16 1/1s already minted on Base stay on Base. They're the origin of the collection, and they stay part of it.
Collectors: your Knight can come with you
I want this move to be seamless for every collector.
If you already collected one of the first 16 Based Knights on Base, or you collect one of them on Base later, you can get your 1/1 on ETH if you prefer it that way. Just ask me, and I'll mint your matching 1/1 on Ethereum mainnet.
When that happens, I take the Base 1/1 out of the Based Knights collection room on my website and put your new ETH 1/1 in its place. Your Knight keeps its place in the collection. Only the chain changes.
If you're happy on Base, you don't have to do anything. Your Knight stays on Base, and it stays part of the collection.
Two chains, one room
On circularsurrealism.com, the Based Knights collection room now shows the 16 Base pieces together with every piece from the new ETH contract: #1–#16 on Base · #17–#333 on Ethereum. The animations collection is now called Based Knights • Short Films. That room works the same way across Base and ETH, and each short film is awarded to the winner of the auction of its static 1/1 piece.
That's possible because I built these rooms myself, on my own website. A marketplace page usually shows one contract on one chain. My site isn't tied to any single chain or marketplace, so I can put pieces from different contracts and chains side by side, in one place.
This isn't new for me. The Mystic Orbs room already shows all 62 AI Art pieces in one place, even though they were minted on Zora (on Base), on Rodeo (on Base) and on Manifold (on ETH).
So having the first 16 on Base and the rest on ETH causes no issues. One collection, one room, one story.
Every new Knight minted on Ethereum now appears on the site automatically, in its room and among the latest pieces.
Rarity stays whole
I asked myself one question: if the first 16 are never minted on ETH, what happens to rarity?
The answer: nothing. I already know the rarity of every piece. Based Knights are 333 pieces across 38 clans and 5 tiers:
Rare — 14 clans, 10 or 9 pieces per clan
Ultra Rare — 10 clans, 9 or 8 pieces per clan
Special — 8 clans, 8 or 9 pieces per clan
Legendary — 4 clans, 8 pieces per clan
Mystic — 2 clans, 8 pieces per clan
Tier and clan are the only two attributes that matter for rarity, and they don't depend on which chain a piece lives on.
I'm also considering building a rarity checker on my site, where you type your Knight's name and see its tier and clan rarity. More on that soon.
Where I mint from now on
I will not mint on Base anymore.
Based Knights will be minted only on Ethereum. That's their home now.
The new Ethereum contracts, both on Transient Labs:
Based Knights: 0x93f21bb8462a3485f05fae28c46064d64dd9623b
Based Knights • Short Films: 0x12b0ebae8e7ae334bb53d6c4c349e71464e28543
The fourth Knight of the Glitched Clan, Vortyx • Glitched Knight #4, is the first minted on the new Ethereum contract, and his short film is the first on the new Short Films contract.
My other collections and my 1/1s will keep being minted on Ethereum, Tezos and Solana, and potentially on Bitcoin. But no Based Knight will ever be minted on Tezos, Solana or Bitcoin.
What "Based" always meant
I never named Based Knights after a blockchain.
I chose "Based" because I loved the term "based people": the smart ones, the web3 natives, the people who just know.
By moving to the real based blockchain, the name finally and more clearly means what it always meant. Not where we minted. How based we are.
And the name will keep a small glimpse of a far beginning, on a chain where we did start. That chapter is now just history.
And Based Knights now has its own name on Ethereum too: basedknights.eth.
Onward
Ethereum is the best chain for AI Art: the most prestigious, and the one with the strongest future. That's where Based Knights belong, and that's where Knights #17 to #333 will live.
Thank you to every collector who has walked with Based Knights so far. The best part of this story is still ahead.
— slowfreeze